Note: I learnt this technique from robouk's tutorial and I liked it alot, too bad his site is dead for a long time now, so I re-create this based on what i've learnt from his. So much of the credit goes to him.
Create a new image (mine is 300x300) with a gray background (#64635C).
Use the type tool to create your text and make it big so it fit the canvas. Im using Times New Roman.
Now rasterize the text layer (Layer>Type>Rasterize or right click on the text layer in the layer pallete and select rasterize).
Ctrl + Click on the text later to create a selection around the text.
Go to the channel pallete and create a new channel.
On the new channel, fill the selection with white then deselect (CTRL + D). Then go to filter > Blur > Guassian Blur and use raduis = 10
Then apply the Guassian Blur again, this time, use raduis = 5
Apply Guassian Blur again and this time use raduis = 3. One more time, and use raduis = 1
Now go back to the layers pallete and select the type's layer.
Now with the type layer selected, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and use the following settings:
Now go to image>Adjustments>Curves and use the following settings:
Now apply the Lighting effects again (Filter > Render > Lighting Effects) and use the following settings:
That's it, now if you want, you can apply the following drop shadow and stroke settings, this is how I came to the result you see to the left.
